Virginia Man Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison for Traveling into the District of Columbia to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct with a Minor

WASHINGTON—George G. Kahl, 42, was sentenced today to 40 months in prison for traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Kahl, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty in April 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer. Upon completion of his prison term, Kahl will be placed on 10 years of supervised release.

According to the government’s evidence, on February 9, 2013, Kahl contacted a man he believed to be the father of an under-aged female child on a social network site. That man turned out to be an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Over the next few days, Kahl engaged in graphic online e-mail and text message conversations with the undercover officer. During these conversations, Kahl arranged with the undercover officer to meet for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with the purported child. On February 22, 2013, Kahl traveled from Alexandria to Washington, D.C., for that purpose and was arrested.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director Parlave and Chief Lanier praised the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Redbord, who prosecuted the case.